tank

1

In India (Bengal), ? – 20th centuries, a unit of mass used for pearls, precious stones and metals, today approximately 4.4 grams. (UN1966)

19th century

tank

ruttee

24

quarter

4

96

tucka

3.44

13¾

330

anna

1.6

4

16

384

12.14
mg

19.42
mg

48.54
mg

194.17
mg

4.66
grams

2

In India (Bombay), 19th century, a unit of mass = 1/72 of a
seer. In Bombay,
4.4 grams; in Darwar, 3.24 grams; in Poona, 12.42 grams. Earlier sources report both higher and lower values. One says that in Bombay
(present-day Mumbai), the tank was 17 1/72 grains (about 1.1 grams).

Prinsep (page 72) says “The seer at Bombay is divided into 30 pice or
72 tanks, of 72 troy grains each.” The subdivision is correct but the
value is suspect. Were this so, the seer would be 5184 grains, and the maund of
40 seers, 207,360 grains, or 29.62 pounds av. But the Bombay maund by this time
was 28 pounds av. Subdividing the 28-pound maund gives for the tank (28 ×
7000, divided by 72 × 40 =) about 68.06 grains, about 4.41 grams. The
72-grain tank is a pearl weight.

Another author1 offers the following data:

Pearl weights in Bombay

tola

tank

4

waal

8

32

ruttee

3

24

96

vassa

20

60

480

1920

1.951 gr

5.853 gr

1 dwt, 22.824 gr

7 dwt, 19.296 gr

126.4 mg

379.3 mg

3.034 g

12.137 g

Bruno Kirsch reports that in the 16th century,
the tank was 20.96 grams.

1. John Clunes.Itinerary and Directory for Western India, being …
Calcutta: H. Townsend, 1826.

The information is from the Appendix, which has the imprint
American Mission Press, Bombay. We encountered Clunes as a selection printed in

Robert Montgomery Martin.History of the Colonies of the British Empire…
London: Wm. H. Allen and Co. and George Routledge, 1843.
Page 143, Appendix IV.

It must be mentioned that the reprinted passages in
Martin's book are often full of errors.

3

In India, a unit of dry capacity in the province of
Aurengabad. When the seer is taken as a measure of capacity (see the quotation
below), the tank is 1/72nd of it. Doursther lists values ranging from 17.1
to 14.5 grams.

sources

India does not, properly speaking, possess dry or liquid
measures. Where these are employed, they depend upon, and in fact represent,
the seer or maund weight; the mention of measures has been accordingly omitted
in the foregoing scheme for Bengal, leaving the value of an vessel of capacity
to rest solely on the weight contained in it.

The mode in which this is effected for the “dry
measures” of South and West India is, by taking an equal mixture of the
principal grains, and forming a vessel to hold a given weight thereof, so as to
obtain an average measure. Sometimes salt is included among the
ingredients*. Trichinopoly is the only place where grain is said never to be
sold by weight. The mercal and parah are the commonest measures; the latter is
known throughout India; in Calcutta it is called ferrah, and is used in
measuring lime, &c. which is still recorded however in mds. wt. [maunds
weight]